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New player, how's it going to be!?

Well, I just waited around 30 hours for this game to download on my brand new iMac. Seems like a nice game, and I heard the community is great. I tried WoW and absolutely hate the cartoonish graphics, and the questing was quite boring.

Anyways, is the story line in LOTRO good (as in interesting), is the endgame fun? Looking forward to playing, let's hope it makes a better impression then WoW did!

Well, I just waited around 30 hours for this game to download on my brand new iMac. Seems like a nice game, and I heard the community is great. I tried WoW and absolutely hate the cartoonish graphics, and the questing was quite boring.

Anyways, is the story line in LOTRO good (as in interesting), is the endgame fun? Looking forward to playing, let's hope it makes a better impression then WoW did!

The story is well written, both the Epic Quest line (read: Main Quest line) and the side quests. As for endgame, it depends on what you're looking for. I can't really comment on the Endgame, as I'm fine with it, but I'm not a raider or PvPer which is where most of the complaints come from.

In case you're not aware, all of LotRO is not free. Only up to level 30-ish can you play with no problems. After that, it gets difficult to level up to continue with the epic quest line (free to all players) without higher level areas to quest in. But you can buy quest packs with Turbine Points you can earn just by playing the game if you don't want to pay.

Well, I just waited around 30 hours for this game to download on my brand new iMac. Seems like a nice game, and I heard the community is great. I tried WoW and absolutely hate the cartoonish graphics, and the questing was quite boring.

Anyways, is the story line in LOTRO good (as in interesting), is the endgame fun? Looking forward to playing, let's hope it makes a better impression then WoW did!

First of all welcome...

Yes, Lotro community is probably the best you can get in a MMO. Of course you will run into a rotten apple here and there but overall i cant complain much...
I found the main storyline (aka epics) up to level 50 amazingly well written. And i really suggest you read every quest you do. Same goes for regular quests. If you just go from point A to B and back without reading about what you are doing and why, it will get repetitive really fast.. Once you enter moria at 50 you get Legendary items which is a fun mechanic (bit grindy, but you need to experience it for yourself) and a fairly satisfying story-line. You get to interact with some major baddies in Moria and well known good guys once you leave Moria.
The expansions that follow arent as great story wise as Moria and the original game.. Mirkwood was for most part acceptable while the expansion that follows, Rise of Isengard (lvls 65-75) was really bad.. Rohan is the latest expansion and it was a major improvement....

End game isnt that great IMO. You got some PvP, buggy raids that not a lot of people run, instances that are regularly farmed for drops, and daily grinds..
All in all i would say that Lotro is a game you will most enjoy the first time leveling up.....

Well, I just waited around 30 hours for this game to download on my brand new iMac. Seems like a nice game, and I heard the community is great. I tried WoW and absolutely hate the cartoonish graphics, and the questing was quite boring.

Anyways, is the story line in LOTRO good (as in interesting), is the endgame fun? Looking forward to playing, let's hope it makes a better impression then WoW did!

As for the endgame, it always matters who you play with. That is where, I think, the LoTRO community shines. Which server you are on is also an important choice, and, like you, I play both on my 2008 iMac, and my i7 laptop. A good indicator of population size is the chart on the Bounders token thread (sorry, I don't have the link...

Welcome to LoTRO, and if there is anything we can do to help, just ask!

It will depend entirely on how you play the game and whether you have preconceived notions. My advice: play the game as it is not as you compare to another game. Its one of the more "realistic" types of games and has a stellar IP (Tolkien).This game has "soul" something you will not find in any other. Its a unique thing.

Its heavily solo oriented, yet once you feel comfortable with your gameplay you should try grouping and find a kin that suits you. Fun goes up exponentially when you do.

Toward endgame your gonna get a warhorse. I find fighting on horseback extremely fun. There are roaming "warbands" of 4 to ? bad guys whom you can challenge. Hijinks ensue.

Thanks everyone, those screenshots look amazing. Question. . I don't have a problem paying if the game is good, but what exactly do I need to buy around level 30? Like do I pay monthly, buy expansions? Any advice is appreciated. As for endgame ( I've never been a pvp type person ). Just the general feel of continuing playing after reaching level cap I suppose.

I don't have a problem paying if the game is good, but what exactly do I need to buy around level 30? Like do I pay monthly, buy expansions?

You can either subscribe or buy quest packs. If you subscribe, you'll still need to buy any expansions you want to play, but I believe the only expansion you can't work around with a VIP subscription is is Mines of Moria, since it takes up 10 levels (~50-60) and there's not really any alternate leveling areas. You ma also have a problem without the latest expansion, Riders of Rohan (75-85), because I think Wildermore is entirely an 85 zone. Siege of Mirkwood (60-65) has an alternate leveling zone at Enedwaith (also ~60-65) that is free for subscribers and Riders of Isengard can be passed with proper planning between Enedwaith and Great River (~70-75), also free for subscribers.

I would recommend subscribing for at least a month for all the benefits you'll keep when you drop to premium. Best recommendation (assuming you only want a month of VIP) is to buy the Evendim quest pack, which will get you into the low 40s, then subscribe and push to 50 (since there's not really a single quest pack that can get you from 40 to 50, it usually takes at least two), at which point you'll need to buy the expansion anyway (probably). If you think you can sail from 30 to 50 in a month, you can skip buying Evendim, but most people on their first characters either can't or don't want to.

As for endgame ( I've never been a pvp type person ). Just the general feel of continuing playing after reaching level cap I suppose.

Plenty to do at cap, though it's slowed down quite a bit between it being the summer months before the new expansion and a few somewhat poor choices Turbine made about gear.

Thanks everyone, those screenshots look amazing. Question. . I don't have a problem paying if the game is good, but what exactly do I need to buy around level 30? Like do I pay monthly, buy expansions? Any advice is appreciated. As for endgame ( I've never been a pvp type person ). Just the general feel of continuing playing after reaching level cap I suppose.

You have a few options around level 30.

Buying the Mithril Edition from Gamestop will net you the path of the fellowship, 2000 TP and an accountwide steed you can ride once you get the riding skill (free to VIPs or 95 TP per charcater). This content will have you set to level 60-ish. It will give you access to Trollshaws, Eregion, Moria and Lorien and is thought to be the best deal currently. During this time, you can buy VIP for a month to unlock some permanent perks such as gold cap removal and all trait slots being unlocked on any characters you log into while VIP.

You can also just go VIP to unlock access to all non-expansion quest pack areas while you are VIP. This is all areas except Moria, Mirkwood, Isengard and Rohan. You'll still have to buy those with Turbine Points (you get 500 a month as VIP coupled with whatever you earn while playing and completing deeds).

When you finish you last quests in the Agamaur region of the Lone Lands, you will have some taste of the solo and grouping in LotRO. Then you'll know if you want to stick to your own (alsmost all world-quest content can be completed solo) or if you want to get together with some friends or kin (aka guild) and master group content as well. If you want to stick to the solo content mostly, become VIP or get the Eriador package / Mithril Edition. Most of the time, you won't need the lower-level instances and it's mostly hard to find others to join you. If you enjoy group-content, get the Rohan Expansion (Legendary Edition) when you hit lvl 70.
I also recommend becoming VIP for at least a Month. It saves you ~1400 TP per character easily and you get another 2 temporary char-slots during VIP-time.
But first of all, try out the game until you get to ~30 and make you decision at that point.

Buying the Mithril Edition from Gamestop will net you the path of the fellowship, 2000 TP and an accountwide steed you can ride once you get the riding skill (free to VIPs or 95 TP per charcater). This content will have you set to level 60-ish. It will give you access to Trollshaws, Eregion, Moria and Lorien and is thought to be the best deal currently. During this time, you can buy VIP for a month to unlock some permanent perks such as gold cap removal and all trait slots being unlocked on any characters you log into while VIP.

My apologies, I completely forgot about this option! This thing runs for $20 usually, and the TP alone runs for around $20 as well. I actually purchased it when I was VIP.
If you can, get it.

Shadows of Angmar $$ for levels 1 to 50Intro:level 1 to 6 (or 7)Erid Luin: starter area for Elves and Dwarves level 6 to 14.Shire: starter area for Hobbits level 6 to 16ish.Breeland: starter area for man level 6 to 20ish.Lonelands and or North Downs from level 20 ish to 35 ish.Evendim and or Trollshaws level 35 ish to high 30s.Misty Mountains Very high 30s to mid 40s.Forochel low 40s to high 40s.Angmar very high 30s to high 40s or even 50.This was the original game. Forochel, and Evendim were free updates. Misty Mtn region was expanded for free, Angmar was fleshed out further.Mines of Moria is the first true expansion that was offered for $$.It included Dunland, EDIT: Eregion (thanks for the sharp eye) multiple regions inside the Mines of Moria, and Lothlorien for game play: level 45 ish to level 60. Legendary weapons introduced.Then Mirkwood was offered for $$ to bring the game level to 65.Isengard expansion for $$ and levels to 75.Riders Of Rohan expansion for $$ level to 85. Fighting on Horseback introduced.Helms Deep coming soon! Level to 95.This will represent months of game play, and if your a completionist, years of gameplay.EDIT: something has happened to spacing, and I cant fix it presently.

Last edited by morrowbreeze; Sep 02 2013 at 12:09 PM.

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Landroval Server
Officer of The Lonely Mountain Band
Whilst cooking for Elevensies, Tinki floors 2 Orcs with her frying pan and fresh caught fish. The frying pan critted for 18 hp and the fish was extra tender afterwards.

Are they? I'm not sure as I never tried doing them. And, of course, can't log in to check. :P

It's tough to say since I bought the actual expansion, but it's what others have said and I know that's how Mirkwood works. I think the instance cluster being tied to the actual "expansion" is something they only started doing with RoI.

Thanks everyone, you've all made this game sound more interesting and I am really looking forward to playing (shame that the time I download, the servers happen to be down as well)! Anyways, the prices of expansions don't seem to be a big deal at all, and I probably won't have to purchase anything for a while from what you guys are telling me (Might take me a while to level since I plan to actually follow the story line and not just go from point A to point B). Anyways I'm not sure if this game has separate servers like WoW (Just to be clear I only played WoW for about two weeks), but if there are separate servers, I plan to join one with a high population, any advice for any servers with high population that are "noob friendly"?

Thanks everyone, you've all made this game sound more interesting and I am really looking forward to playing (shame that the time I download, the servers happen to be down as well)! Anyways, the prices of expansions don't seem to be a big deal at all, and I probably won't have to purchase anything for a while from what you guys are telling me (Might take me a while to level since I plan to actually follow the story line and not just go from point A to point B). Anyways I'm not sure if this game has separate servers like WoW (Just to be clear I only played WoW for about two weeks), but if there are separate servers, I plan to join one with a high population, any advice for any servers with high population that are "noob friendly"?

Well, I'm going to assume that you're a US player based on the times you've been posting, but correct me if I'm wrong as that will affect the servers people will suggest.

Brandywine, Landroval, and Elendilmir are the three biggest US servers. Brandywine I think is the largest server out of all of them (to maybe include EU servers, but definitely the US ones), Landroval is the US's RP server, and Elendilmir is also the unofficial Oceania server, so you'll see a lot of people on at what may seem like weird times. I think I listed those three in order of size.

Thanks everyone, you've all made this game sound more interesting and I am really looking forward to playing (shame that the time I download, the servers happen to be down as well)! Anyways, the prices of expansions don't seem to be a big deal at all, and I probably won't have to purchase anything for a while from what you guys are telling me (Might take me a while to level since I plan to actually follow the story line and not just go from point A to point B). Anyways I'm not sure if this game has separate servers like WoW (Just to be clear I only played WoW for about two weeks), but if there are separate servers, I plan to join one with a high population, any advice for any servers with high population that are "noob friendly"?

Have you thought about roleplaying a character on one of the servers? Landroval is a great server for US times and it's a roleplay server too. It doesn't mean you have to roleplay but it's a lot of fun if you want to try. Landroval is a high population server, one of the big three for US times.

Welcome to the game, the community is great and the game is beautiful if your computer can work on graphics above medium!

Well in regards to wether or not my computer can support playing on "higher graphics", I'm not sure if any of you have experience playing on an iMac, but I literally just bought a brand new one about a week ago. So far I love it, I mainly bought it since I'm currently going to school for game design. It's not the "top of the line iMac", but in my opinion, I think it'll do just fine.

Well in regards to wether or not my computer can support playing on "higher graphics", I'm not sure if any of you have experience playing on an iMac, but I literally just bought a brand new one about a week ago. So far I love it, I mainly bought it since I'm currently going to school for game design. It's not the "top of the line iMac", but in my opinion, I think it'll do just fine.